V (Roman numeral for five) is the fifth studio album by American band Maroon 5. It was released on August 29, 2014, by Interscope Records. V was Maroon 5's first album to be released through Interscope after the band's previous label, A&M Octone Records, transferred them along with most of its artists to Interscope. The album also saw the return of keyboardist/rhythm guitarist/backing vocalist Jesse Carmichael after his absence from recording, touring and promoting Overexposed (2012).

V debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 164,000 copies in the first week. The album produced three hit singles, "Maps", "Animals", and "Sugar", peaking at number 6, number 3, and number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, respectively. A re-release single, "This Summer", was released on May 15, 2015, the last single "Feelings", was released on September 14, 2015.

In 2012, Maroon 5 released their fourth studio album, Overexposed, the record was released during a time of commercial momentum for the band following the success of "Moves like Jagger" (recorded with Christina Aguilera), a single which lead singer Adam Levine credited as having "revived the group",[6] and the album's lead single, "Payphone", which became both a critical and commercial success.[7]Overexposed was described by the band as their "most poppiest[sic] record to date", with critics giving the album mixed reviews upon its release,[8] describing the album as having lacked memorable hooks and charm,[9] and having exposed their limitations.[10] The album, however, was met with a positive note with praise directed generally at Levine's vocals and the album's production.[11]

V was recorded by the band at Conway Studios in downtown Los Angeles, California over a year-long period from 2013 through to mid 2014.[12] The recording sessions for V saw the band's keyboardist Jesse Carmichael return to the band after a two-year hiatus, which saw him absent during the recording and promotion for Overexposed.[13]V also features a collaboration with Gwen Stefani called "My Heart Is Open",[14] co-written with Sia Furler. James Valentine stated that the band has known Furler for a long time and working with her was "really cool".[15]

The album cover for V was created by South Korean photographer Lee Jung,[16] it features a 1.3m neon lighted crosstube formed in the shape of the roman numeral for five, the title of the album.[17] The red neon display is placed in front of a reservoir in the Gyeonggi Province,[16] with mountains in the background. The Maroon 5 logo appears out of focus in the background as a sign perched on the side of the mountain, similar to the famous Hollywood Sign.[18]

Departing from then-active A&M Octone Records, the band signed with its related label, Interscope Records in May 2014 to release the album.[19]V was unveiled by the band and Interscope on May 19, 2014, slated for a release date of September 2, 2014 in the United States.[20] Through a signed contract with Live Nation, the band had also announced that they are also set to embark on a world tour in late 2014 through to early 2015 in support of V,[12] the artwork for V was unveiled through a series of five puzzle piece clues released daily through the band's Facebook page from July 17 through to July 21.[21] After the series was completed, the album's artwork, in addition to its track listing, were unveiled on July 21, 2014.[22] Moreover, to promote the album, the band performed during the 2014 iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in London, England, as a headline act on the night of September 11, 2014 (all of the concerts played as part of the festival were filmed and webcast live),[23] the band started their Maroon 5 Tour in February 2015 at venues mainly to take place in North America and Europe until September 2015.[24]

"Maps" was released as the album's lead single on June 16, 2014.[25] The teaser of the song was uploaded on band's Facebook page on June 11, 2014,[26] the song peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100[27] giving the band their ninth top-ten hit in the country. "Maps" also reached the top-ten in an additional fourteen countries, including a peak of number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.

"Animals" was released as the album's second single on August 25, 2014. The song peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their tenth top-ten hit in the country.[27] "Animals" also peaked within the top-ten in an additional ten countries, and has also sold in excess of 200,000 copies in the UK alone. Likewise with their previous single, Animals achieved platinum status in the US for sales exceeding 1,000,000 copies.

"Sugar" was released on January 13, 2015 as the album's third single.[28] It is the most successful single from the album, reaching the top-ten in 24 countries, including number 6 in Australia, number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The album received generally mixed reviews upon its release, on Metacritic, V received a weighted average score of 55/100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[38] In a four-star review, Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone called the songs "precision-tuned and lustrously polished, jammed with hooks and choruses that build a man cave in your brain."[36]Brian Mansfield of USA Today gave the album two and a half stars out of four, remarking the album was "easy to digest and contains all sorts of flavors while still being its own thing."[37] In a 86 out of 100 review for Billboard, Brad Wete argued the album "reveals that their foundation has not been removed."[3] Writing on behalf of AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album three and a half stars out of five, praising the band for "[embracing] the tuneful, slightly soulful adult contemporary pop band they've always been".[31]

Not all reviews were positive. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly graded the album a C, suggesting Levine's songwriting didn't "live up to his ability to work a crowd."[2] Writing for The Guardian, Tim Jonze gave the album two out of five stars, dismissing it as "evidence as to why most people can't remember a Maroon 5 song two seconds after it finishes."[33] In a two star review from The Observer, Theo Leanse called the album "a gaudy chunk of over-produced electro-pop-rock", but noted its accessibility, saying it "flips a smug V-sign at us, knowing we'll never free its singles from our skulls."[1] Evan Rytlewski gave a C+ review on behalf of The A.V. Club commenting the band "stayed hip", but only by "furnishing a too-perfect, soundstage ideal of whatever the kids are into these days."[32] In the New York Daily News, Jim Farber criticized the hooks on the album for being "so annoying, you won't be able to scrub them from your mind."[34] Annie Galvin delivered a 5/10 review for PopMatters stating, "As far as lightweight, easy-listening charts pop goes, V doesn't totally offend the sensibilities, and that's surely more than can be said about some of Maroon 5's overly pandering, less exploratory 'pop-rock' peers."[35]

In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 164,000 copies.[39] and earned their second US number-one album and their first since 2007's It Won't Be Soon Before Long. As of August 2015, it has sold over one million copies in the US.[40]

In Canada, the album also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, with 15,000 copies sold for the week;[41] in its second week, the album remained at number one with 7,700 copies.[42]

^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select {{{date}}} on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data. Retrieved September 16, 2014.

1.
Album
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Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves

2.
Maroon 5
–
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band that originated in Los Angeles, California. The band, which self-released an album called We Like Digging, then signed to Reprise Records and released the album The Fourth World in 1997. After the album garnered a tepid response, the band parted ways with the record label, in 2001, the band changed its image by adding guitarist James Valentine and pursuing a different direction under the name Maroon 5. At this point, Carmichael switched to playing keyboards, which has become his main instrument in the band. After these changes, Maroon 5 signed with a subsidiary of J Records, Octone Records, the albums lead single, Harder to Breathe, received heavy airplay, which helped the album to debut at number six on the Billboard 200 chart. In 2004, the album went platinum and has dubbed the sleeper hit of the millennium. The band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005, for the next few years, Maroon 5 toured extensively worldwide in support of Songs About Jane and produced two live recordings, 2004s 1.22.03. Acoustic and 2005s Live – Friday the 13th. In 2006, Dusick officially left Maroon 5 after suffering from serious wrist, the band then recorded their second album, It Wont Be Soon Before Long and released it in May 2007. The album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, in September 2010, Maroon 5 released their third studio album Hands All Over, which was re-released in 2011 to include the single Moves like Jagger featuring Christina Aguilera. While the original version of the album received mixed reviews, Moves like Jagger reached the one position on the Billboard Hot 100. The band released their album, Overexposed, on June 26,2012. All four singles of the album were successful on the Billboard Hot 100, including second single One More Night. Keyboardist PJ Morton became a member of the band in 2012. The addition of PJ Morton meant that for the first time, in 2014, the band signed with Interscope Records and released their fifth studio album, V. Maroon 5 has sold more than 20 million albums and 70 million singles worldwide, Adam Levine was introduced to Ryan Dusick by a mutual friend and guitarist, Adam Salzman. Levine was 15 years old and Dusick was 16, three of the five members of the band started playing together at age 12. The four original members of the band met while attending Brentwood EMH School in Los Angeles, while attending Brentwood EMH School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael joined up with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Karas Flowers, a rock band. The name was taken from a girl went to their high school that the band had a collective crush on

3.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas

4.
Malibu, California
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Malibu is a beach city in Los Angeles County, California, situated 30 miles west of Downtown Los Angeles. Known for its Mediterranean climate, a 21-mile strip of the Malibu coast incorporated in 1991 into the City of Malibu, the area is known for being the home of Hollywood movie stars, people in the entertainment industry, and other affluent residents. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,645, signs around the city proclaim 27 miles of scenic beauty, referring to the historical 27-mile Malibu coast spanning from Tuna Canyon west to Point Mugu in Ventura County. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway, for many residents of the unincorporated canyon areas, Malibu has the closest commercial centers and are included in the Malibu zip codes. The city is bounded by Topanga to the east, the Santa Monica Mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south. Nicknamed the Bu by surfers and locals, beaches along the Malibu coast include Surfrider Beach, Zuma Beach, Malibu Beach, Topanga Beach, Point Dume Beach, County Line and they named it Humaliwo or the surf sounds loudly. The citys name derives from this, as the Hu syllable is not stressed, explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo is believed to have moored at Malibu Lagoon, at the mouth of Malibu Creek, to obtain fresh water in 1542. The Spanish presence returned with the California mission system, and the area was part of Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit—a 13 and that ranch passed intact to Frederick Hastings Rindge in 1891. Few roads even entered the area before 1929, when the state won another court case, by then May Rindge was forced to subdivide her property and begin selling and leasing lots. In 1926, in an effort to selling land to stave off insolvency. At its height, Malibu Potteries employed over 100 workers, and produced decorative tiles which furnish many Los Angeles-area public buildings, the factory, located one-half mile east of the pier, was ravaged by a fire in 1931. Although the factory reopened in 1932, it could not recover from the effects of the Great Depression. A distinct hybrid of Moorish and Arts and crafts designs, Malibu tile is considered highly collectible. Fine examples of the tiles may be seen at the Adamson House and Serra Retreat, the unfinished building was sold to the Franciscan Order in 1942 and is operated as a retreat facility, Serra Retreat. It burned in the 1970 fire and was using many of the original tiles. Most of the Big Rock Drive area was purchased in 1936 by William Randolph Hearst and he sold the lower half of his holdings there in 1944 to Art Jones. Jones was one of the prominent early realtors in Malibu, starting with the leases of Rindge land in Malibu Colony. He was also the owner/part-owner of the Malibu Inn, Malibu Trading Post, mcAnany Way is named after him

5.
Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time

6.
Record Plant
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The Record Plant was a series of three famous recording studios which were founded by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, beginning in New York City in 1968. The next year, Kellgren and Stone opened a studio in Los Angeles. In 1972, the company expanded again with a location in Sausalito. Kellgren died in 1977, and in the 1980s, the New York and Sausalito studios ended up under different ownership, the New York studio closed in 1987 and the Sausalito studio closed in 2008. The Los Angeles studio continues in business as the Record Plant, the Record Plant in New York was the first studio to give the recording artist a comfortable, casual environment rather than the clinical setting that was the norm through the 1960s. Kellgren and Stone brought this same vision to their Los Angeles, Stone later said of Kellgren, He single-handedly was responsible for changing studios from what they were—fluorescent lights, white walls and hardwood floors—to the living rooms that they are today. In late 1967, Chris Stone was introduced to Kellgren because Kellgrens wife Marta was seven months pregnant, scared of the upcoming birth, mutual friends thought that the two couples could talk about being parents and ease Martas worry. Though they were opposed in nature, with Stone all business and Kellgren very creative. Seeing him at work, Stone determined that Kellgren was not making use of his genius for making recordings. Stone noticed that the studio was charging its clients $5,000 per week. Stone suggested Kellgren ask for a raise, and soon he was making $1,000 per week, Stone held an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and was at that time employed as the national sales representative of Revlon cosmetics. Stone convinced Kellgren that the two of them, with $100,000 borrowed from Johanna C. C, ancky Revson Johnson, could start a new recording studio, one with a better atmosphere for creativity. Johnson was a model who became the second wife of Revlon founder Charles Revson, then divorced and married Ben Johnson. In early 1968 Kellgren and Stone began building a 12-track studio at 321 West 44th Street and it opened on March 13,1968. When The Jimi Hendrix Experience arrived at the studio, Kellgren engineered the first few dates until Eddie Kramer, in 1969, Kellgren and Stone sold the New York operation to TeleVision Communications, a cable television company that was broadening its portfolio. The purpose of the sale was to gain cash for expansion into Los Angeles with a second studio, the next big mixing assignment that the studio accepted was to mix the tracks recorded at the Woodstock Festival. These took more than a month to sort out in the studio, as recording conditions had been primitive, in 1970, Studio A became the first recording studio designed for mixing quadraphonic sound. On August 1,1971, the studio made its first remote recordings at The Concert for Bangladesh, in January 1972, Warner Communications bought the facility from TVC

7.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions

8.
Electro (music)
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Electro is a genre of electronic music and early hip hop directly influenced by the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machines, and funk. This is the distinction between electro and previously prominent genres such as disco, in which the electronic sound was only part of the instrumentation. It also palpably deviates from its predecessor boogie for being less vocal-oriented, following the decline of disco music in the United States, electro emerged as a fusion of funk and New York boogie. Early hip hop and rap combined with German and Japanese electropop influences such as Kraftwerk, Planet Rock was followed later that year by another breakthrough electro record, Nunk by Warp 9. In 1983, Hashim created an electro funk sound which influenced Herbie Hancock, the early 1980s were electros mainstream peak. By the mid 1980s, the genre moved away from its electronic and funk influences, using harder edged beats and rock samples, Electro became popular again in the late 1990s with artists such as Anthony Rother and DJs such as Dave Clarke. A third wave of popularity occurred in 2007, Electro has branched out into subgenres, including Electrocore and Skweee, which developed in Sweden and Finland. From its inception, one of the characteristics of the electro sound was the use of drum machines, particularly the Roland TR-808. As the genre evolved, computers and sampling replaced drum machines in electronic music and it is important to note, that although the electro of the 1980s and contemporary electro both grew out of the dissolution of disco, they are now different genres. Classic electro drum patterns tend to be electronic emulations of breakbeats, with a kick drum. The difference between electro drumbeats and breakbeats is that electro tends to be mechanical, while breakbeats tend to have more of a human-like feel. The definition however is somewhat ambiguous in nature due to the uses of the term. The Roland TR-808 drum machine hit the market in 1980, defining early electro with its immediately recognizable sound, staccato, percussive drumbeats tended to dominate electro, almost exclusively provided by the TR-808. As an inexpensive way of producing a sound, the TR-808 caught on quickly with the producers of early electro because of the ability of its bass drum to generate extreme low-frequencies. This aspect of the Roland TR-808 was especially appealing to producers who would test drive their tracks in nightclubs and its unique percussion sounds like handclaps, open and closed high-hat, clave and cowbell became integral to the electro sound. A number of songs in the early 1980s employed the TR-808, including Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing, ” Cybotron’s “Clear, ” and Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock. ”The Roland TR-808 has attained iconic status. Through the use of samples, the Roland TR-808 remains popular in electro, most electro is instrumental, but a common element is vocals processed through a vocoder. Additionally, speech synthesis may be used to create robotic or mechanical lyrical content, as in the iconic Planet Rock, although primarily instrumental, early electro utilized rap

9.
Interscope Records
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Interscope Records is an American record company. At the time, it differed from most record companies by giving decision-making authority to its A&R staff and it had its first hit records less than a year after it was founded and achieved profitability in 1993. In 1992, Interscope acquired the rights to market and distribute the hardcore rap label Death Row. Albums by Death Row artists included rappers Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, as a result, Time Warner severed ties with Interscope by selling its 50 percent stake back to Field and Iovine for $115 million in 1995. In 1996, 50% of the label was acquired by the MCA Music Entertainment Group for a reported $200 million, Iovine served as chairman and CEO until May 2014. He was succeeded by John Janick, Interscope is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. The labels best-selling artists include U2, Eminem, Lady Gaga, in 1989, Ted Field began to build Interscope Records as a division of his film company, Interscope Communications. To run it, he hired John McClain, who had played a role in Janet Jacksons success at A&M Records, and Tom Whalley. Separately, Iovine, who had produced records by U2, Bruce Springsteen, I thought, Music is going to change, Iovine said in 1997. Young bands arent going to be asking for me, but I love working with the new thing. I always liked the part of the business thats the first time you hear something, Iovine and Field were introduced by Paul McGuinness, then U2s manager. After a series of negotiations led by David Geffen, they came to an agreement, in a 1997 article in Rolling Stone, David Wild wrote, Interscopes start-up coincided with a period of incredible change in the music world. Nirvana had ushered in the alternative revolution, based in Westwood, California, Interscope was run by music men. It was a departure from the industry practices of the 1970s and 1980s. A founding tenet of the label was that artists would have creative control. Interscopes first release was Rico Suave by Ecuadoran rapper Gerardo in December 1990, Primus Interscope debut was released in May, followed by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunchs Music for the People in July. It included the #1 single Good Vibrations, two days after first hearing his demo, Whalley signed Tupac Shakur, and in November 1991, Interscope released 2pacalypse Now, Shakurs studio debut. Interscope began to develop a significant presence in the genre in 1992

10.
Adam Levine
–
Adam Noah Levine is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and record producer. He is the lead vocalist for the pop rock band Maroon 5, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Levine began his musical career in 1994, when he co-founded the alternative rock band Karas Flowers, of which he was the lead vocalist and guitarist. The band split up after their album, The Fourth World. In 2001, the group was reformed – with guitarist James Valentine joining the line-up – and began a new musical chapter, in 2002, the band released their first album, Songs About Jane, which went multi-platinum in the US. Since then, they have released four albums, It Wont Be Soon Before Long, Hands All Over, Overexposed. He also has released two singles Dont Wanna Know and Cold, as part of Maroon 5, Levine has received three Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award and a World Music Award. Since 2011, Levine has served as a coach on NBCs reality talent show The Voice, the winners of the first, fifth and ninth seasons, Javier Colon, Tessanne Chin and Jordan Smith, were on his team. In 2012, he made his debut as a recurring character in the horror television show American Horror Story. He also starred in the film Begin Again, as an entrepreneur, Levine launched his own eponymous fragrance line in 2013. The same year, he collaborated with K-Mart and ShopYourWay. com to develop his menswear collection and he also owns a record label,222 Records. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that sources familiar with his business dealings estimated Levine would earn more than $35 million that year. Adam Noah Levine was born in Los Angeles on March 18,1979 to Fred Levine, the founder of retail chain M. Fredric, and Patsy Levine and he has two brothers, Michael and Sam, and two sisters, Liza Levine and Julia Milne Levine. Levines father and maternal grandfather are both Jewish, while his grandmother was a Protestant of Scottish and German descent. Levine considers himself Jewish, though according to an interview with The Jewish Chronicle, he has rejected formal religious practice for a more generalized, spiritual way of life. He chose not to have a Bar Mitzvah as a child, explaining, I just dont think its the most respectful way to deal with God and beliefs and years and years and years of cultural heritage. Levine is a nephew of journalist and author Timothy Noah, television producer and writer Peter Noah and his parents divorced when he was seven. Growing up, Levine spent weekdays with his mother and weekends with his father and he underwent therapy for his parents divorce, but called it a waste of time explaining that his parents could not accept the fact that I might have been OK with it. I cried my eyes out and kicked and screamed and said, Why. a few days later I was fine but I still had to go to therapy

11.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu

12.
Carolina Liar
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Carolina Liar is a Swedish-American alternative rock band. Lead vocalist Chad Wolf is originally from Moncks Corner, South Carolina, the band is best known for the songs Im Not Over and Show Me What Im Looking For from their 2008 major label debut album Coming to Terms, produced by Swedish producers Max Martin and Tobias Karlsson. The song Im Not Over featured in the 2008 movie What Happens in Vegas, starring Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz, on March 3,2009, the single Show Me What Im Looking For was featured on the iTunes Store as the Free Single of the Week. Show Me What Im Looking For also appeared in FOX Sports commercials for the 2009 MLB All-Star Game, Show Me What I’m Looking For and Open The Door will be featured in commercials for Investigation Discovery’s new show, Disappeared. Show Me What I’m Looking for will also be featured in promo spots for WEtv’s The Locator, in spring of 2014 an instrumental version of Show Me What I’m Looking For was used in an advertising campaign for Swinton Insurance. The TV advert featured the 2013 Britains Got Talent winners, Attraction, Carolina Liar was also the support act on the David Cook/Gavin Degraw 2011 Fall Tour. In 2012, they were the act for the Kelly Clarkson/The Fray Tour. Carolina Liar also played as the act for Rob Thomas while he was playing in New York City at the Beacon Theater. Peter Carlsson co-produced Ariana Grandes single Love Me Harder, johan Carlsson co-wrote and co-produced another single by Ariana Grande, Dangerous Woman. 90210 MTV Spanking New Session The Ellen DeGeneres Show BalconyTV Hamburg Die Oliver Pocher Show BETA Records TV

13.
Jason Evigan
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Jason Evigan is an American songwriter, music producer and multi-instrumentalist. He also produced Prince Royces first English-language hit, Stuck on a Feeling, Evigan was the vocalist for the rock band After Midnight Project, although the band is on hiatus as of October 2,2014. Evigan was born in Los Angeles, California, to actor Greg Evigan and he is the brother of actresses Briana Evigan and Vanessa Lee Evigan. He has worked with recording artists including Demi Lovato, Rihanna, Maroon 5, Nick Jonas, Kelly Clarkson, Austin Mahone, Madonna, Madison Beer. He has also produced records with Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, Zendaya, prior to his career as a writer and producer, Evigan was the lead singer of the Los Angeles-based band After Midnight Project. The band released one album and four EPs and they participated in the Warped Tour and played with artists including Chevelle, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Papa Roach, Thirty Seconds to Mars,10 Years and Story of the Year. Evigan is a member of the production duo The Suspex with fellow writer and producer Mitch Allan, the pair have penned numerous hits including Demi Lovatos Heart Attack. Evigan credits his entry into pop songwriting to Disney A&R executive Mio Vukovic after Vukovic introduced him to Demi Lovato, Evigan went on to have four songs on Demi and two on Selena Gomezs debut album Stars Dance

14.
Rodney Jerkins
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Rodney Jerkins, also known by his stage name Darkchild, is an American record producer and songwriter. Songs and albums which Jerkins has produced have sold over 160 million records worldwide, Jerkins has also won four Grammy Awards. Jerkins father is an Evangelical pastor, Jerkins began playing piano at 5 years of age, following his brother and father who both played at church gatherings, where his father led a congregation subduing a racist agenda. At age 14, Jerkins was mentored by his idol, Teddy Riley, Jerkins first recorded output was a gospel rap collaboration with his brother, Fred Jerkins III, entitled On the Move. He later incorporated the name Darkchild, at the age of 17, the producer then proceeded to establish a commercial music career, initially working with artists such as Joe, Mary J. Blige and Brandy. Blige, Lionel Richie, JYJ, Wonder Girls, Austin Brown, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Utada Hikaru, Hala Al Turk, Brian McKnight and LMFAO. He is currently producing songs for Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis, Justin Bieber, JLS, Nelly Furtado, Kylie Minogue, Ayumi Hamasaki, The Saturdays forthcoming albums, Jerkins was a music producer and mentor on season 10 of American Idol. When asked by Ryan Seacrest in 2013 the favourite people hes produced for he said Definitely The Saturdays, I had a lot of fun working with them and was really impressed with their voices. They were very down to earth and I like that a lot in an artist, I wish them all the best in America and think they could end up as big as The Spice Girls. In preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, Jerkins produced a song featuring the Palestinian 2013 Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf, in 1999, Jerkins joined Sony/Epic Records to promote power vocalist Rhona, Pop/R&B girl group So Plush and rapper Fats. Fats appeared on two tracks Jerkins produced for Michael Jacksons Invincible album and So Plush released the single Things Ive Heard Before. Subsequently, So Plushs singles, Damn and Things Ive Heard Before, were pressed and made available as promos, in 2006, he was appointed VP of Artists & repertoire for The Island Def Jam Group. Jerkins released his wife Joy Enriquezs second album Atmosphere of Heaven, the Darkchild name has been loaned to Darkchild Gospel, a record company run by Jerkins brother, Fred Jerkins III. which released the latest album from Virtue – Testimony. In late 2008, Jerkins joined Nicholas Longano, Ray Brown, musicMogul. com represents an entirely browser-based online destination where celebrity artists can unite with their fans. Aspiring artists, songwriters and producers have a chance to be discovered as the next superstar and it is responsible for discovering up and coming producer/songwriter Keri Malena out of Dallas Texas who is making a good name for himself producing quality music. As a result of exposure, Mr. Malena, as he is called, is now appearing on major label releases such as, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Keyshia Cole, Jamie Foxx. Each quarter, members vote for the best video performances, the top performers are then flown to Los Angeles to compete in front of a panel of celebrity judges. The winner gets a deal with Darkchild Productions

15.
Andre Lindal
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Andre Lindal is a Norwegian songwriter, record producer and musician from Oslo, now based in Los Angeles. He has produced for popular artists and groups, including Maroon 5, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Kelly Clarkson, Nelly Furtado. After receiving a Grammy nomination for his work with Monica in 2011, Lindal grew up in Hauketo, a small suburb of Oslo, and moved to the US to pursue a degree in Music Production & Engineering from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduating Cum Laude in 2004, he moved to Los Angeles, in 2010, Lindal co-wrote and produced the Monica song Believing in Me with the producing team, Stargate. The song was included in the album Still Standing which earned Lindal his first Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album, in 2011, Andre was introduced to Rodney Jerkins and was immediately signed to his production team, Darkchild. Within a month, the duo wrote and produced the song What Are Words for American Idol Season 10 contestant Chris Medina that sat at the top of the Scandinavian music charts for over 19 weeks straight. They also wrote and produced the song I Forgive You for Kelly Clarksons latest album, Stronger, in addition, Jerkins and Lindal have worked on music for television, teaming up with executive producer, Nick Cannon, on the soundtrack for the Nickelodeon movie, Rags. The soundtrack peaked at #1 on the soundtrack albums chart. Justin Bieber single, As Long As You Love Me, from Believe was written and produced by the duo, it was released on June 11,2012 as a promotional single and later on July 10,2012 as a radio single. The music video, featuring Kill Bill and Reservoir Dogs star, the song is also included on the set list for Maroon 5s 2015 world tour, Maroon 5 World Tour 2015

16.
Shellback (record producer)
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Karl Johan Schuster, known professionally as Shellback, is a Swedish songwriter, record producer, and musician. Shellback has collaborated with fellow producer Benny Blanco for Payphone and Moves like Jagger by Maroon 5 and he has also produced songs by himself, including Want U Back by Cher Lloyd and Animals by Maroon 5. Karl Johan Schuster was born and raised in Karlshamn, Sweden and he started out as a drummer in local indie rock bands in Karlshamn, as well as recording all instruments on the 2003 Meriah demo. In 2005 he also performed as a guest musician on the Faith album Sorg, at the age of 16, Schuster met Max Martin through their mutual friend Julius. By that time, according to an interview in the Swedish music magazine Stim-magasinet, Schusters taste in music was too cool for school, Julius kept sending Schusters indie rock/death metal demos to Martin, who became curious about what it would sound like if Schuster would make pop music. So in 2006 Martin invited Schuster to his studio in Stockholm to record a demo with him, among the first songs Schuster co-wrote with Martin are Pinks 2008 single So What and Britney Spears 2008 single If U Seek Amy. In 2012 Schuster won the STIM Platinum guitar prize, in 2014, Schuster produced Problem alongside Max Martin and Ilya. In 2015, Shellback collaborated with Swedish hardcore punk band Refused, Sandstrom sent him the versions of the songs Elektra and 366 that Refused had recorded with producer Nick Launay, and Shellback replied with his own arrangements of the two songs. Refused frontman Dennis Lyxzen explained in June 2015 that Shellbacks versions were far more Refused than our versions and were better than the Launay-produced versions. The two songs appear on Refuseds comeback album Freedom—Elektra was released as a single on April 27, 2015—which was released on the label Epitaph Records on June 26,2015. With Meriah. Turn Him Your Other Cheek With Blinded Colony Promo Demo Bedtime Prayers As a guest musician Faith - Sorg The following singles peaked inside the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. Number-one singles So What 3 Raise Your Glass Moves like Jagger We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together One More Night Shake It Off Blank Space Bad Blood Cant Stop the Feeling

17.
Ryan Tedder
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Ryan Benjamin Tedder is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Tedders production and songwriting work has proven successful commercially, Apologize, written with and performed by his band OneRepublic, Bleeding Love, performed by Leona Lewis, and Halo, performed by Beyoncé, all made it to the list of best-selling singles of all time. In early 2014, Billboard named him The Undercover King of Pop, ryan Benjamin Tedder was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was raised by an family of missionaries and pastors in a Christian church. He began learning to play the piano at the age of three via the Suzuki method and his early interest in music was prompted by his musician father and school-teacher mother, who coaxed their young son into practicing piano in exchange for candy corn. Tedder started singing at the age of seven and he has commented, I sang for two hours a day every day of my life until I was eighteen. He continued to perform musically during his adolescence through church, school, in his senior year, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado. There he met and became friends with future OneRepublic bandmate Zach Filkins on their team at the Colorado Springs Christian School. He attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma and began to showcase his own material there, Tedder completed his college education and graduated from ORU in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations and Advertising. For years Tedder worked as a waiter, and also as an assistant at Pottery Barn, before securing an internship at DreamWorks SKG in Nashville. He produced demos for songwriters and labels, charging $300 to $400 a track, the prize for the winner was a music contract with Basss now-defunct management company, Free Lance Entertainment. The contestants performed live and were rated by judges and the audience. Tedder later revealed the record and publishing deal he was offered wasnt real and it was just a bunch of hype that didnt turn into anything. One year after winning the MTV competition, Tedder caught the attention of the hip hop producer Timbaland, Tedder commented that he was with Timbaland from 2002–2004 to develop as an artist while producing for other artists at the time. Tedders work crossed many genres and he has had many chart successes both in America and the United Kingdom with a number of artists. In June 2007, Tedder signed a publishing administration deal with Kobalt Music Publishing. The deal included Tedders new works and all songs not performed by OneRepublic, Tedder met producer Morten Schjolin in 2005, doing various collaborations for Tattoos second album. Tedder is the writer of the hit, Apologize, performed by his band OneRepublic

18.
Singles (Maroon 5 album)
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Singles is a compilation album by American pop rock band Maroon 5 released on September 25,2015, through Interscope Records. The album does not contain any new or unreleased songs, on September 1,2015, Interscope Records announced that Maroon 5 would be releasing their debut greatest hits album, on their label. Fans have also responded to the lack of more favorable hits on the album, such as Harder to Breathe, Sunday Morning, the photo was taken whilst on tour with Maroon 5 on their North American leg of their world tour backstage. The album debuted at six in Japan, selling 11,000 physical copies in its first week. In Brazil, the debut at number 8 in ABPD chart

19.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s

20.
Maps (Maroon 5 song)
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Maps is a song by American pop rock band Maroon 5. The song was released on June 16,2014, as the single from their fifth studio album V. The song was written by Adam Levine, Ammar Malik, Benjamin Levin, Noel Zancanella and Ryan Tedder, the song is a pop rock song with influences of dance-pop. Maps received mainly positive reviews music critics, with praise going to the songs melody. However, some criticized the song for being similar to their previous lead single on their last album, the song was a commercial success, reaching number-one in Canada and peaking at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached the top 20 in over 25 countries, including France, Germany, a music video for the song was released on July 1,2014. It was inspired by the film Irréversible, and shows the events occur in the video in reverse. Maroon 5 has performed the song multiple times, including on The Today Show. The song was written by Adam Levine, Ammar Malik, Ryan Tedder, Benny Blanco and Noel Zancanella, and produced by the latter three. Blanco and Malik have previously teamed with Maroon 5 on the songs Moves like Jagger and Payphone, while Tedder and Zancanella have worked with the group on the songs Love Somebody and Lucky Strike. Maps is a pop rock track, composed in the key of C ♯ minor. It marks Maroon 5s further departure from the sound for which the band was originally known. The official remix features a new verse from Big Sean and new production beats, lyrically, the song is about the search for love, particularly a love that has been lost and needs to be found. In the chorus, Adam Levine sings All the roads you took came back to me / So Im following the map leads to you. He also added that the influence of Ryan Tedder is evident, jeff Benjamin of Fuse compared the opening guitar licks to the California-cool sound of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Music Times commented, With his singsong melody over the relaxed, plucked guitars and subtle drums, shortly after its release, Maps quickly reached number one on the Billboard Twitter Real Time Trending 140 chart, eventually staying within the upper ranks for several hours. The song also logged close to 1,800 first-day spins on radio which, according to the Nielsen BDS and it has since peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached its million sales mark in August 2014 and had sold 1.6 million copies by the years end, the single debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart in late August 2014

21.
Animals (Maroon 5 song)
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Animals is a song by American pop rock band Maroon 5. It was released on August 25,2014 as the official single from the bands fifth studio album. It was written by Adam Levine, Benny Blanco and Shellback, the official Remix features J. Cole and another remix features Big Boi. The lyric video for the song was released on August 22,2014 on Vevo, a snippet of Animals was featured in a Kia Soul commercial, published on August 21,2014. For a limited time after the commercial premiered, the song was available for download on the official Kia website. The song peaked at three on the US Billboard Hot 100 giving Maroon 5 their tenth top 10 single in the U. S. Rolling Stone ranked Animals at number 32 on its year-end list of the 50 best songs of 2014, the music video, directed by Samuel Bayer was released on September 29,2014. It mainly features Adam Levine and his wife, Behati Prinsloo, the other musicians of Maroon 5 also make an appearance - they are seen playing at a nightclub in some scenes of the video. The video starts with a woman entering a slaughterhouse, where Levines character works, after she leaves, an infatuated Levine begins to stalk the woman by following her in the streets and standing outside her apartment in the pouring rain to watch her. He also watches the woman in her sleep and takes photos of Prinsloo which he later trims. Intercut with this are scenes of a shirtless Levine dripping in blood, singing the song inside a meat locker. One evening, Levine follows the woman into a nightclub, where he tries to talk to her, though Prinsloo is amused by Levine and his interest in her, she spends the evening talking to her girlfriends instead. Eventually, Levine is left with no luck, so he goes back to fantasizing about the girl. After an erotic dream, Levine wakes up in a shock and returns to his stalking Prinsloo by standing outside her apartment in the rain watching in a dazed state, the final scenes feature Levine and Prinsloo as obsessed lovers kissing—whilst disrobed and covered in fake blood. The music video was heavily panned by critics and has been condemned for dehumanizing women, RAINN released a statement condemning the video, which wrote that No one should ever confuse the criminal act of stalking with romance. The trivialisation of these crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry. In the United States, the song debuted at number 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, the song reached its million sales mark in the US in November 2014. The song peaked at three on the Billboard Hot 100 issue dating November 22,2014 and spent fourteen weeks in the top 10

22.
Sugar (Maroon 5 song)
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Sugar is a song recorded by American pop rock band Maroon 5 for their fifth studio album, V. It was written by Mike Posner, Adam Levine, Dr. Luke and it was sent to contemporary hit radio in the United States, as the third single from the album on January 13,2015. Sugar is a disco, funk-pop and soul song that features a range of instruments including percussion, keyboards. Commercially, Sugar peaked at two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and became the bands third top 10 single from V. Sugar is the 68th song in history to score at least 20 weeks in the top 10 of the Hot 100, film director David Dobkin shot the accompanying music video for the single in Los Angeles. Inspired by the 2005 romantic comedy Wedding Crashers, it features Maroon 5 crashing weddings that happened in the city, the video premiered on January 14,2015, and received its television premiere on January 17. The song is used as the encore of the shows during the Maroon 5 World Tour 2015. A remix of the song, featuring rapper Nicki Minaj was digitally released on March 10 via the iTunes Store, Sugar received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. Since the release of his studio album,31 Minutes to Takeoff, American singer and songwriter Mike Posner started writing material to be included in his follow-up record. One of the set to be included in the album was Sugar. However, in 2014, he switched labels and announced that Pages would not be launched, Im a big fan, so Im glad they did it. The final version of Sugar was written by Levine, Posner, Lukasz Gottwald, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Joshua Coleman, the production of the song was done by the latter two under their respective production names Ammo and Cirkut. The lead vocals were sung by Levine, with vocals provided by singer Posner who co-wrote the track. Sugar was recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood, Dr. Luke in the Boo in Malibu, John Hanes was the mixing engineer while all the instrumentation and programming was provided by Maroon 5, Dr. Luke, Ammo and Cirkut. Artie Smith was the instrument technician, interscope Records serviced the song to contemporary hit radio in the United States on January 13,2015. The same day, the band unveiled the artwork for the single that features red-colored lips holding a sugar cube. On March 10, a remix of the song, featuring Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj, was released via the iTunes Store. Sugar is a disco, funk-pop, and soul song with a length of three minutes and fifty-six seconds

23.
This Summer's Gonna Hurt like a MotherFucker
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This Summers Gonna Hurt like a MotherFucker is a song performed by American pop rock band Maroon 5. Originally, the song was set to be the single from the bands fifth studio album, V. Instead it was released as the promotional single from the album. Musically, the song has described as having a synthpop sound. On May 6,2015, it was rumored that Maroon 5 were to release a new single titled This Summers Gonna Hurt on May 26,2015. On May 11,2015, the officially announced that the single would be released on May 15. According to the music published on musicnotes. com, the song is composed in the key of E minor with a moderate tempo. During the May 17–23 tracking week, “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt” received approximately 4,216 pop radio spins and that earned it the number 22 position on Mediabase’s official pop radio airplay chart. The following week, “Summer” leveraged only two days of airplay to debut at number 35 on the pop chart. “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt” also reached the top 25 at hot adult contemporary radio, after debuting at number 44, the song jumped to number 23 on its second week, after receiving 1,457 tracking week spins. A music video for the song was filmed during a concert at SSE Arena Wembley on May 28,2015. It was directed by Travis Schneider and Adam Levine and was released on May 30,2015, in the video there is a scene where Levines buttocks are fully exposed. Because of this in the video there is a content warning, a clean version of music video was released on June 12,2015. The video starts with Adam Levine coming out of the bathroom, after dressing up there, he starts to walk in the corridor. He takes to the stage where the audience greets him and the group performs the song live, when the performance ends the group members descend the stage and go to sit in their cars to go. The music video was received positive response from most critics

24.
Feelings (Maroon 5 song)
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Feelings is a song recorded by American pop rock band Maroon 5 for their fifth studio album, V. It was written by Adam Levine, Shellback, and Oscar Göres, Adult Contemporary and contemporary hit radio on September 14 and 15, respectively, as the fourth single from the album. The official artwork for the single was unveiled by Maroon 5s official Twitter account on October 6,2015, although a music video was recorded at the Playboy Mansion, its release was scrapped. The song appeared on the fifth studio album, V. Feelings was announced as the single of the album in July,2015. It was sent to US Adult Contemporary radio on September 14,2015, the official artwork for the single shows womans legs and debuted online on October 6,2015. Feelings is written in the key of E♭ minor with a tempo of 122 beats per minute, levines vocals span from B♭2 to G♭5 in the song. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

25.
Roman numeral
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The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, Roman numerals, as used today, are based on seven symbols, The use of Roman numerals continued long after the decline of the Roman Empire. The numbers 1 to 10 are usually expressed in Roman numerals as follows, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, Numbers are formed by combining symbols and adding the values, so II is two and XIII is thirteen. Symbols are placed left to right in order of value. Named after the year of its release,2014 as MMXIV, the year of the games of the XXII Olympic Winter Games The standard forms described above reflect typical modern usage rather than a universally accepted convention. Usage in ancient Rome varied greatly and remained inconsistent in medieval, Roman inscriptions, especially in official contexts, seem to show a preference for additive forms such as IIII and VIIII instead of subtractive forms such as IV and IX. Both methods appear in documents from the Roman era, even within the same document, double subtractives also occur, such as XIIX or even IIXX instead of XVIII. Sometimes V and L are not used, with such as IIIIII. Such variation and inconsistency continued through the period and into modern times. Clock faces that use Roman numerals normally show IIII for four o’clock but IX for nine o’clock, however, this is far from universal, for example, the clock on the Palace of Westminster in London uses IV. Similarly, at the beginning of the 20th century, different representations of 900 appeared in several inscribed dates. For instance,1910 is shown on Admiralty Arch, London, as MDCCCCX rather than MCMX, although Roman numerals came to be written with letters of the Roman alphabet, they were originally independent symbols. The Etruscans, for example, used

26.
A&M Octone Records
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A&M Octone Records was an American record label. It was a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Octone Records, the label represented a merger of Interscope-Geffen-A&Ms A&M Records defunct label with Octone Records. A full-service artist development label, A&M/Octone operated music publishing, merchandising and touring entities – in addition to specializing in recorded music, launched in 2000, Octone Records was founded by CEO/President James Diener and distributed through Sony BMG. After successful signing, release, marketing and promotion on Octone, artists were given the option of upstreaming to RCA Music Group, upon launch, Diener and Octone Records were also well known in the music industry for their entrepreneurial private-equity financing model. The existing Octone roster was transferred to the A&M/Octone label and all new artist signings were made under the A&M/Octone joint venture, the legal name of the A&M/Octone label was OctoScope Music, LLC, the name derives from the merger of the labels Octone and Interscope. OctoScope Music, LLC was the holder on all A&M/Octone releases. A&M/Octone Records operated from 2007 until 2014

27.
Jesse Carmichael
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Jesse Royal Carmichael is an American musician. He is the keyboardist and rhythm guitarist for the pop rock band Maroon 5, Carmichael also has a solo project called 1863. Carmichael was born in Boulder, Colorado, United States and his father, Bob Carmichael, is a photographer, who also takes pictures during Maroon 5s tours. Jesse also has a sister, Annie. He first started playing the guitar in high, rather than the keyboards. Some time later, Carmichael, along with Adam Levine, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick, started a band called Karas Flowers, in 1997, they released their debut album, The Fourth World. The album found success and, after the demise of the group, Carmichael. While in college, Carmichael began to play the keyboards, however, two years later, Levine and Carmichael dropped out and headed back to California. All of the Karas Flowers members eventually met up and formed Maroon 5, with the addition of guitarist, James Valentine. On March 9,2012, Carmichael was announced to take a break from playing in Maroon 5, for an amount of time to focus more on his studies of music

28.
Overexposed (album)
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Overexposed is the fourth studio album by the American band Maroon 5, released on June 20,2012, by A&M Octone Records. The band worked with different producers, such as Max Martin, the bands guitarist and Levines usual co-writer James Valentine only has four credits on the album. The accompanying artwork, created by LA artist Young & Sick, is a collage of illustrations seemingly inspired by the likes of Picasso. Its title is an allusion to Levines ubiquity, while its sound is a reflection of how the group wishes to retain the large audience they won once again with Moves Like Jagger. The albums lead single Payphone, featuring rapper Wiz Khalifa, produced by Shellback and Benny Blanco, was released and performed on The Voice on April 16,2012. The song was a success, reaching two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as on the ARIA Charts, while it topped the UK Singles Chart, Canadian Hot 100. The second single, One More Night, was released on June 19,2012, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, becoming their longest Hot 100 reign. All four singles released from Overexposed have reached the Hot 100 top-ten, the album received a mixed reception from music critics. Some praised the album, calling it their strongest effort, but others criticized the direction the band decided to take, additionally, critics and fans alike perceived the album as overly focused on Levine. It debuted at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 38,000 copies, to promote the album, the band started the Overexposed Tour, which lasted from 2012 to 2014. In September 2010, the released their third studio album. While preparing the album, the received a phone call from Robert John Mutt Lange, who had heard the band were beginning to write a new record. The album received favorable reviews from music critics and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. Valentine further commented, It would be nice to start working on record next year. I think with the last two records, its been a little bit unbalanced, in that we had so much success, in a perfect world wed tour for six months and maybe record for six months, but thats not the way it works. But the whole point is to more music, and if anything you can spend too much time out there. Valentine also said the band has tons of material available, including holdovers including songs from Hands All Over, I think everybodys been pretty busy compiling ideas for the next one, he stated. With technology and the capacity we have on our laptops

29.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart

30.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US

31.
Moves like Jagger
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The song was written by Adam Levine, Ammar Malik, Benjamin Levin, and Shellback, the latter two are also the producers. Moves Like Jagger is a dance-pop and electropop song and is backed by synths, the lyrics refer to a males ability to impress a love interest with his dance moves, which he compares to those of Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones. Moves Like Jagger was well received by critics, who praised the songs chorus. Praise also went to the vocals of Levine and Aguilera, with pointing out solid chemistry between the two. Likewise, the song was a success, going on to top the charts in over 18 countries. In the United States, Moves Like Jagger became the bands second, worldwide, it was the ninth-best-selling digital single of 2011 with sales of 7 million copies. As of 2016, the ranks as one of the eight best-selling digital singles of all time with sales of over 15 million copies. The music video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund, the video features an old video footage of Jagger and his iconic dance moves. Moves Like Jagger was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards but lost to Body and Soul by Tony Bennett, the song was first performed in June 2011 on an episode of The Voice. Moves like Jagger was written and produced by Juan and Karthikeya while additional writing was done by Adam Levine, when asked about the song, Levine said, It was one of those songs that was definitely a risk, its a bold statement. Weve never really released a song like that, but its exciting to do something different, do something new. Im just happy everyone likes it, Moves like Jagger is a dance-pop and electropop song, with elements of disco, pop, rock and soul. It features a throbbing synth, fast-paced beat and electronic drums, robbie Daw from Idolator wrote that Moves like Jagger slightly echoes The Rolling Stones chart-topping 1978 classic Miss You, and added that Levine’s voice is distorted via Auto-Tune on the chorus. The song is introduced by a melody and light, funky guitar in the key of B minor with a tempo of 128 beats per minute. Bill Lamb from About. com gave the song a positive review, Lamb wrote that, The funky, whistle driven melody here is loose, light, and irresistibly funky. The punchy guest vocal from fellow judge Christina Aguilera is simply icing on the cake, there is a real vocal chemistry between Aguilera and Levine. Lamb called the song a summer song, writing that It is light, danceable. Robbie Daw from Idolator wrote that It takes a two minutes and 15 seconds for Christinas soulful pipes to begin trilling on Moves like Jagger

32.
Christina Aguilera
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Christina María Aguilera is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Born in Staten Island, New York and raised in Rochester and Wexford, Pennsylvania, she appeared on the television series Star Search, after recording Reflection, the theme for Disneys 1998 film Mulan, Aguilera signed with RCA Records. She rose to prominence with her 1999 self-titled debut album spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, Genie in a Bottle, What a Girl Wants. The following year, Aguilera released two albums, the Spanish-language album Mi Reflejo and the holiday album My Kind of Christmas. She assumed creative control for her studio album, Stripped, which produced Dirrty, Beautiful. Aguileras fifth studio album, Back to Basics, debuted at one on the album charts of ten countries and spawned the tracks Aint No Other Man. In 2010, Aguilera released her studio album Bionic and starred in the film Burlesque. The following year, she debuted as a coach on the reality television series The Voice. Her seventh studio album, Lotus, was released in 2012, Aguilera has also been featured on several successful collaborations during her career, including Lady Marmalade, Moves like Jagger, and Say Something. Aguilera has been recognized as a pop icon and earned the title Pop Princess in her early years and her work has earned her five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has sold over 17.9 million albums in the United States as of 2014 and 50 million albums worldwide as of 2015. In 2009, she ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, thereby becoming the youngest and the only artist under 30 to be named. Billboard recognized her as the 20th most successful artist of the 2000s, aside from her work in the entertainment industry, Aguilera is involved in charitable activities through human rights, world issues, and her work as a UN ambassador for the World Food Programme. Christina María Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, on December 18,1980, to Shelly Loraine, a musician, and Fausto Xavier Aguilera and her father is Ecuadorian, while her mother has German, Irish, Welsh, and Dutch ancestry. Her family moved frequently because of her fathers service, and lived in places including New Jersey, Texas, New York. Aguilera and her mother alleged that her father was physically and emotionally abusive, claims which he denied, Aguilera used music as a form of escape from her turbulent household. Following her parents divorce when she was six years old, Aguilera, her younger sister Rachel, after several years of being estranged, Aguilera expressed interest in reconciling with her father in 2012. Growing up, Aguilera, known locally as the girl with the big voice, aspired to be a singer, singing in local talent shows

33.
Payphone (song)
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Payphone is a song performed by American pop rock band Maroon 5 featuring American rapper Wiz Khalifa. The song was released on April 17,2012, as the single from their fourth studio album. The song was written by Adam Levine, Benny Blanco, Ammar Malik, Robopop, Shellback and Khalifa and produced by Blanco, the song is a pop ballad and describes a romance that ended abruptly. It has received reviews from music critics, who praised the catchy melody and named it a radio success. Because of this, he must escape from a fleet of policemen, the video was positively received from critics, who considered it an enjoyable mini-action film. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song debuted at the three spot before peaking at number two. The song sold 493,000 copies in its first week, becoming the best sales week for a song by a group. It peaked at one in Canada for eight consecutive weeks. It also topped the charts in the United Kingdom, making it the bands first ever single to do so, Payphone was the worlds fifth best-selling single of 2012 with 9.5 million copies sold. Levine, Blanco, Shellback, and Malik also wrote the previous single Moves Like Jagger. The writing process started when Malik and Robopop constructed a piano line and they gave it to Levine, who wrote the lyrics. Blanco also wanted to throw a wrench into the Maroon 5 works by adding hip-hop flavor to the its sound, I love when things dont make sense, like and you dont hear him on the song at all. I like when bands dip into a different genre. For this, he commissioned Wiz Khalifa to write and rap a verse on Payphone, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Blanco told that five minutes before Khalifa arrived at the studio, he prepared the sound beds for the finger snap-driven portion of the jam. However, producer Max Martin, who was the producer of Overexposed, adjusted the chorus. Shellback recorded Payphone at Conway Studios in Los Angeles alongside Noah Mailbox Pasovoy, john Hanes mixed the song at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach and Phil Seaford was the mixing assistant. Jeremy Jbogs Levin and David D Silb Silberstein served as production coordinators, Khalifa appears as courtesy of Rostrum Records. Payphone was released as a single from Overexposed

34.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

35.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565

36.
Gwen Stefani
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Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer, songwriter, and fashion designer. During the bands hiatus, Stefani embarked on a pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was met both critical and commercial success. It spawned three successful singles, What You Waiting For. Rich Girl, and Hollaback Girl, the reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies. In 2006 Stefani released her studio album The Sweet Escape. The album produced two singles, Wind It Up and the albums title track The Sweet Escape. Her third solo album This Is What the Truth Feels Like was released in March 2016, Stefani has won three Grammy Awards. As a solo artist she has received accolades, including an American Music Award, Brit Award, World Music Award. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L. A. M. B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She was married to British musician Gavin Rossdale from 2002 to 2015, Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the 54th most successful artist and 37th most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000–09 decade. VH1 ranked her 13th on their 100 Greatest Women in Music list in 2012, including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Stefani was born on October 3,1969, in Fullerton, California and she was named after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops 1968 cover of The Left Bankes 1966 song Walk Away Renée. Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and worked as a Yamaha marketing executive and her mother, Patti, worked as an accountant before becoming a housewife. Gwens parents were fans of music and exposed her to music by artists like Bob Dylan. She has two siblings, Jill and Todd, and an older brother named Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt before leaving the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons. Her brother Eric introduced Gwen to 2 Tone music by Madness and The Selecter and, in 1986, he invited her to provide vocals for No Doubt, finally, in 1991, the band was signed to Interscope Records